Page 1563 - war-and-peace

of them removed the balloon that was being constructed
by Leppich; now hinted that he would burn Moscow and
related how he had set fire to his own house; now wrote a
proclamation to the French solemnly upbraiding them for
having destroyed his Orphanage; now claimed the glory of
having hinted that he would burn Moscow and now repu-
diated the deed; now ordered the people to catch all spies
and bring them to him, and now reproached them for do-
ing so; now expelled all the French residents from Moscow,
and now allowed Madame Aubert-Chalme (the center of
the whole French colony in Moscow) to remain, but ordered
the venerable old postmaster Klyucharev to be arrested and
exiled for no particular offense; now assembled the people
at the Three Hills to fight the French and now, to get rid of
them, handed over to them a man to be killed and himself
drove away by a back gate; now declared that he would not
survive the fall of Moscow, and now wrote French verses
in albums concerning his share in the affairthis man did
not understand the meaning of what was happening but
merely wanted to do something himself that would astonish
people, to perform some patriotically heroic feat; and like
a child he made sport of the momentous, and unavoidable
eventthe abandonment and burning of Moscowand tried
with his puny hand now to speed and now to stay the enor-
mous, popular tide that bore him along with it.

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